"Finding oneself lost in memories is sometimes the only way we can make it through the day, especially when they are of a person we can't live without."
- Unkown
•~•~•~•~•~•~•
{No POV}
After several moments club activities were cut short since Takashi had run out after Natalia.
But the guests were very understanding. They all seemed to love the prospect of Natalia and Takashi's past. In fact, they pretty much hoped dearly that they would become a couple eventually. They all thought the two señiors made a great match. Natalia was blatantly more talkative and more expressive than Takashi but not overly so. While Takashi was quiet and inexpressive most of the time she could clearly challenge him into speaking and expressing more.
They were almost perfect opposites yet they had a lot in common.
So with the guests gone Mitsukuni finally broke out laughing at the antics of the two.
"What's so funny Hani-senpai?" Asked Tamaki confused.
Mitsukuni smiled brightly and pointed to a large notebook on floor before Haruhi picked it up.
"That's Nat-chan's songbook. She had it but dropped it as she ran. Taka-chan noticed but he didn't give it back."
"That isn't very nice..." Haruhi commented confused.
"He didn't give it back because that way, Nat-chan will have to come to him for it. He isn't vengeful but he's plotting to get some type payback for her disappearing 10 years ago without a word to us." Mitsukuni explained to his underclassmen.
"Payback? That doesn't really seem like Mori-senpai..." The twins replied.
"He's also testing her to see if her feelings are still the same as they were years ago. He already knew she loved him years ago before he confessed, but he needs to know if she still loves him or not. He got his answers because of the last song in that songbook Haru-chan's holding."
Haruhi curiously, with everyone except Mitsukuni looking at the songbook over her shoulder, opened it to the final song and saw the song that she had performed earlier with doodles of hearts, Takashi's head, and chibi versions of Takashi and Natalia holding hands with a heart above each of their heads. All the doodles surrounding the song, and after reaching the end of the song, there was a message in it that she seemed to have written for herself.
'Maybe we can't say our feelings to him, but perhaps this song will help us let them out in secret.'
"So... this was written with Mori-senpai in mind... But how did Mori-senpai even know about it if it's clearly secret?" Kyoya questioned curiously.
"Because I caught her singing and playing it when she was making it." Takashi said suddenly standing behind them.
"It's rude to read other people's things." He said placing his hand out for them to give it to him.
Haruhi handed it over willingly and the twins still seemed curious.
"What is she even like?" "If we're all honest, we know nothing at all about Natalia-senpai except that her, Mori, and Hani-senpai all know each other from when they were children because her family worked for Mori-senpai's family before her parents died." The twins said.
"Actually, she's also a direct cousin of Ritsu Kasanoda. But that is about it. I have tried looking up her files and such but nothing has turned up. Not even in any of my family's hospitals or any other hospitals or medical institutions for that matter." Kyoya mentioned.
"It seems to me that Natalia-senpai doesn't want any excess attention.. So maybe we should just let her be. She's going to Mori-senpai's birthday masquerade ball and Mori-senpai seems to have plans of his own concerning Natalia-senpai. We're better off not getting involved, we'll just make a mess of things if we do." Haruhi said wisely.
"I have to concur." Kyoya said.
Then they all turned to Mori to get his take and they saw him give a look that screamed help me.
They all stepped back and faltered a bit before Tamaki began to sparkle in excitement and they all started plotting something to handle everything, Mori actively participating in the planning.
When they had a plan all put together they got everything set up and were then shocked as they left the school when suddenly they were attacked and then single handedly protected by Ritsu Kasanoda and his friend Tetsuya.
"Dammit! How the hell did this happen so fast?! We only got word of this possibility this morning!" Exclaimed Ritsu as he suddenly pulled out two guns and used them to incapacitate the two men that were trying to flee.
The men now unable to move fell to the ground and Tetsuya rounded them up with the other two men and quickly tied all of the assailants up.
"Are you all alright?" Asked Ritsu worriedly as he quickly checked all the hosts for injuries.
"Yes." They all chorused.
"Why exactly were we just attacked?" Questioned Kyoya closely.
Ritsu sighed awkwardly.
"If i'm honest, even I don't know what's going exactly... But we should hurry to the Estate. I'm sure my Father and Natalia could probably answer your questions. All I know is that there is now somebody trying to lure out Natalia." Ritsu said leading them to a limo that had pulled up.
"Why exactly would anyone want to lure out Natalia-senpai?" Asked Haruhi confused.
Ritsu sighed in worry.
"I don't know... I really don't know..." He answered sadly his face in a gentle yet sad frown.
~Top Secret Lab, Undisclosed Location~
Natalia Baldoni Kasanoda scrambled all over the lab using various different equipments and throwing several objects into an incinerator in a wall in the room.
"This cannot be happening! I thought I had more time!" Natalia exclaimed in pure rage as she continued racing around the room.
"ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! INTRUDERS FAST APPROACHING FROM THE WEST! EVACUATE THE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY!" An automated voice suddenly rang out!
"Dammit! I have to get out of here!" She muttered angrily going into her fastest speed and throwing all of her experiments and research into the incinerator pushing the button for it to incinerate.
"Incineration Complete" Announed an automate voice.
She sighed as a tear escaped her. She ran to the super computer control center and quickly set the lab to self destruct in 2 minutes and ran out the emergency exit.
"Self Destruct Process Activated! Lab will explode in 120 seconds."
She reached the exit and was confronted by a force of 30 enemies. She sighed in annoyment and got into a fighting stance.
"90" counted down the voice as Natalia continued fighting off men and running for it.
"60" counted down the voice as Natalia finally managed to take them all down and start fleeing away.
"30" counted down the voice as a stronger enemy approached Natalia.
"10"
Natalia quickly began to panic slightly and look around for a way to avoid death.
"9"
She still couldn't find anything and her enemy somehow managed to injure her thigh with a knife as she jumped away grabbing a small boulder and chucking it.
"8"
"7"
Finding an oppening at her one of her enemy's vital points and nowhere else she grabbed a jagged rock and stabbed him in the vital point rendering him incapable of fighting.
"6"
"5"
"CRAP!" She shouted as she began to run for it.
"4"
"3"
"2"
"1"
BOOOOOOOOOOM
The building exploded and the explosion was so large she was blown forward by the force of the blast.
Then, her world went black and the entire location was covered in black dust cover.
~Kasanoda Estate~
"WHAT THE HELL?! ANY NEWS ON NATALIA?!" They heard a male voice boom as they all entered the estate.
"You! What happened?!" Questioned Kasanoda to one of the men of the syndicate.
"It seems there was an explosion at an important top secret location and The Yakuza Diamond was there at the time of the explosion!" The man answered concerned and scared.
"Dammit!" Exclaimed Ritsu after letting the guy go.
They all raced inside and toward Ritsu's father's study.
"Father! What's going on?!" Asked Ritsu.
"Natalia is gone! Who are your friends?" Answered the man noting the people with Ritsu.
"Pardon the intrusion Kasanoda-sama, my name is Kyoya Ootori, these guys and this girl as well as myself are close friends of Miss Natalia..."
"Ah! Yes! Yes! I remember all of you now. You were mentioned some nights ago by Natalia and Ritsu during dinner..."
"They were attacked earlier Father, thankfully nothing happened since Tetsuya and I rushed in but what exactly is going on? Why are these guys being targeted?" Questioned Ritsu.
His father sighed.
"I suppose there is no way to avoid this not being revealed to others now." He said worriedly.
"You must all promise to share nothing of which you will learn today with anyone." He instructed.
They all nodded and sat at Ritsu's father's signal.
"Natalia is a prominent inventor and researcher. She worked in public under a pen name, I believe it was Aoi Hirayama."
"THE Aoi Hirayama?!" Exclaimed Kyoya flabbergasted.
The older Kasanoda nodded grimly.
"To put it simply her latest research and expirementation project she was working on was a sure fire success that she, as far as I am aware, was only close to completing. But it's extremely dangerous. At first, when she saw the dangerous potential it held she stopped immediately and sealed it away in a top secret lab in a top secret location with my help, and of course she stopped working on it all together." The older Kasanoda explained with a guilty sigh.
"How dangerous are we exactly talking about Dad? Because there is no way just anyone would come after research that nobody but Natalia and you yourself knew about..." Ritsu asked calling out his father's guilt for the others to see.
The man sighed as he collapsed guiltily into his chair.
"Worldwide Chaos level of dangerous..." the man answered quietly and grimly.
"If she stopped why is she being targeted then?!" Mitsukuni and Tamaki questioned the man angrily catching on.
"Because she picked back up on it about three years ago... to save her own life after an attack launched against her while she was in France." The man admitted.
"What do you mean?" Asked Takashi suddenly pickig the man up by his shirt collar.
"She survived the attack but just barely. She was badly wounded and almost lost use entirely of one of her arms as well as most of her eyesight. No medical procedure would have been able to restore her sight nor the use of her arm. So she fled to the lab and completed two different parts of her research applied it on herself... Afterwards she sealed it up again but I was attacked while on a plane back home and I would have died had she not rescued me and taken me to the lab to apply the reasearch to my own body."
"Just what was she researching?!"
"Biotechnology! Biotechnology on humans... to be precise..." Finally blurted out the man silent tears falling from his eyes.
Everyone shocked by the information backed up in shock from the man a little.
"Biotechnology on humans?! That's completely insane?! Just what was she thinking to have come up to that?!" Kyoya questioned shakily.
"I was thinking... about developing a way to save people's lives..." Said the voice of Natalia.
They turned to the door to see her there covered in cuts and bruised with blood coating one of her legs.
"We need to go to my lab here! Now! I've already had the men evacuate the estate immediately. I'll answer any and all questions there. This place isn't safe anymore." Natalia said leading them out.
TBC...
Who's targeting Natalia?! Why do they want her research?! What will happen next?!